Aftermath of Hurricane Helene in the NC mountains, late fall 2024

tirolski · Nov 8, 2024

MarzNC said:
Fall colors aren't quite over yet in North Carolina. The Blue Ridge Parkway goes right next to Asheville. Getting the road open to the Folk Art Center is a big deal. The Biltmore estate and gardens re-opened on Nov. 2. They set up for Christmas, as they usually do in late fall. Hopefully there will be people heading to the area to spend some tourist dollars in the next couple months. If I weren't headed to Boston for Snowbound Expo, I'd probably make a short trip to Asheville in the next couple weeks.

Don’t drink the Asheville tap water yet.
When I went to Milan the folks there didn’t drink their tap water either so there’s that.

Asheville pumping 17 million gallons out of North Fork daily, but turbidity still an issue • Asheville Watchdog

The North Fork Reservoir’s capacity for providing treated water to city customers continues to rise, but the water is still not potable and likely won’t be for weeks. “North Fork’s capacity to push treated and filtered water into the system has risen to 17 million gallons a day,” Asheville Water...

avlwatchdog.org

MarzNC · Nov 19, 2024

The Asheville water system got back to normal yesterday. Water from the North Fork reservoir is being treated, "raw water" has been flushed from the entire system, and testing has been completed all over the system. So there is no longer a "boil water" situation in effect.

The recent updates in the Citizen-Times included various notes related to debris removal in the city. It will be a long time before the "new normal" is established in the area, even in the areas of the city and towns that were not devastated by direct flooding or debris flows.

I-40 at the NC/TN line could open by New Year's with 1-lane each way for cars. Commercial truck traffic is out of luck for for foreseeable future. Won't be the first time in recent decades that a major repair has meant long detours for tractor-trailers. Usually because of landslides, not the complete undermining of the roadbed.

November 5, 2024

When will Interstate 40 reopen at the Tennessee/North Carolina state line? Maybe early 2025

Traffic will be slow through the Pigeon River Gorge with only one narrow lane in each direction as workers fix significant Helene damage.

www.knoxnews.com

tirolski · Jan 7, 2025

MarzNC said:
I-40 at the NC/TN line could open by New Year's with 1-lane each way for cars. Commercial truck traffic is out of luck for for foreseeable future. Won't be the first time in recent decades that a major repair has meant long detours for tractor-trailers. Usually because of landslides, not the complete undermining of the roadbed.

Not gonna open for awhile due to another slide in the sketchy place.
The engineer dude made a recent Utube detailing his thoughts.

tirolski · Jan 7, 2025

These folks warm others’ abodes.
The story warms my heart.

True grit.

tirolski · Sunday at 10:03 AM

Santenello went to the aftermath recently.

MarzNC · Sunday at 9:13 PM

At the same time, there has been progress in many places. I stopped by Asheville in Dec 2024 on the way to Colorado. Spent a couple days in Lake Lure with my husband in May.

One lane is each direction on I-40 at the TN/NC border is open. Chimney Rock State Park will re-open at limited capacity at the end of June. A temporary bridge was built to provide access.

One of the restaurants that used to be in the town of Chimney Rock moved to Lake Lure. Businesses around Lake Lure are open even though the lake is not. It's been drained enough to allow lots of dredging in several areas. Won't be re-opened as a recreational lake for a year. It's not a water supply reservoir.

Not the most exciting video, but gives an idea of the amount of effort required to re-open a washed out road that is a main access for a small mountain town. Black Mountain is about 15 miles east of Asheville. RT 9 connects Bat Cave to Black Mountain. Without that road, it takes twice as long to get to Asheville. That means tourists visiting Asheville are less likely to visit Bat Cave or Chimney Rock.

June 3, 2025